- Solo travel can be an incredible experience
that allows you to explore new places, meet new people,
and challenge yourself in ways you never thought possible.
It certainly challenged me
to break out of my comfort zone back in 2015.
And looking back, I really do believe it was the catalyst
in starting my career as a filmmaker.
So if you're planning a solo trip this year,
you may wanna capture some of your memories on video
so you can relive them for years to come.
And you never know, this decision to take that trip alone
could be life changing.
So if you've clicked on this video,
you've already planted the seed.
This is here to equip you with a killer shot list
to make the most of your time abroad.
I'm such a firm believer
in this archeological notion or approach to filmmaking
because it's certainly worked for me.
And to be honest, I wouldn't be here speaking about it
if I hadn't done it myself.
And what I mean by archeological,
is to learn and develop your skills through trial and error.
The idea here is not necessarily over plan or overthink,
but to accept that travel filmmaking
is very much a fluid process.
And oftentimes what we may plan to capture,
isn't actually what we bring home.
So it's really important to trust in the process.
So as much as this video is very much directed at Sikho,
thank you for the comment, it's here to equip you.
And also, I'm really addressing the 2015 version of myself.
(upbeat music)
The arrival shot should be
a very powerful visual introduction to your travel film.
Now, you could consider capturing things
at the airport or at the train station,
or this could be an amazing, immersive, big, bold landscape.
This could even be, you know, your first glimpse at a city,
or this could be something, you know,
it could be an underwater species that is really opening us
and lending itself to direct the vision
of what we are about to watch.
Now, when it comes to this arrival shot,
consider a few different things.
If you are specifically using this shot list
as a hard and fast line to produce your content,
then you may have already planned this out.
But from my experience, a lot of my early work
in travel filmmaking was produced after the fact,
was retrospective storytelling,
was going out and living this said adventure
and coming back to piece that puzzle together.
And in that instance,
the arrival shot was never something planned.
It was a lot more of a feeling, an emotion,
something that I was able to think more deeply
and nuanced about after the experience.
So always having your camera on you,
you never know when this moment will pop up,
but it's really important to listen to your inner voice
and allow that to direct you
as much as you may already have a very clear cut,
precise direction with the type of shot that you want.
I guess what I'm trying to say here
is for the less spirited travelers, paint us a picture
of the place or a moment in one shot.
Again, fluidity is your best friend.
Go with the flow on this one. Think power.
(upbeat music)
What is a travel film without these?
So think landscapes, think scenic views,
think sunsets and sunrises.
Now, scenic shots really allow us
to feel more of that adventure,
but it's also important to reiterate
that it doesn't have to be bright and sunny.
Scenic shots can be cloudy, moody, overcast, and dreary.
They, too, equally set the scene in the eye of the beholder.
I certainly remember going to Hawaii
and it wasn't sunny at all.
A really great challenge that you could set yourself to try
and capture better scenic shots,
is to task yourself with creating a daily vlog.
Now, this doesn't mean you have to go out,
edit and upload that thing every day,
but what you should try and do is create a vlog every day,
whether you're talking to camera or not,
whether you're just filming every day.
Because in that sense,
the notion and practice of everyday filming
will certainly equip you with a catalog
of incredible scenic shots to come back to,
to work with, to edit.
This definitely worked for me when I had no idea
about how I would construct
or create my narrative in post-production, I daily vlogged.
I told the camera what I was doing, and I captured B-roll.
(gentle serene music)
Third on the list are cultural shots.
Now, what this may include are things like local cuisine,
certain cultural rituals or practice,
I guess, other significant cultural elements
to a destination or place.
But what I really wanna express and stress here,
is like if your goal with the film is to market the place,
then sure, this might be something
that you have to specifically capture.
But if your goal is a more personal story
of your relationship to the place,
then these kinds of shots
can be a lot more interpretational.
If you were to capture a local Balinese person
wearing a Bintang singlet,
that definitely wouldn't inspire me
to wanna go to Bali. (chuckling)
But if you were to, you know, include or share a story
of you finding a Bintang singlet
washed up on the beach in Bali after a beach clean
and you wanted to stress the importance
of how this singlet had a cultural significance
to over tourism in the country of Indonesia,
then yes, that singlet is culturally significant.
What's important here is to keep exploring the signifiers,
not what is signified,
but these signifiers and how they relate to you.
Something as small as a shell
could have quite a large cultural significance.
(bright upbeat music)
Solo travel really is
about stepping out of your comfort zone.
The fact that you are going on this said journey by yourself
in the first place is an adventure.
If you're capturing shots of yourself, not a selfie,
but of yourself, maybe they're on a tripod mounted,
you know, and maybe that is of an adventurous activity
like bungee jumping or kayaking or surfing
or diving or snorkeling or swimming, whatever it is,
these will all paint pivotal pictures
and pieces of the puzzle for your travel film.
What I think is important here
is to define what adventure means to you.
Now, again, that may be something as extrinsic big
and large as bungee jumping, but that may also be
quite intrinsic as camping under a beautiful starry night.
Maybe you're grappling with something inside
that is being released and that is a huge adventure for you,
or maybe that is quite external
and you are sailing across a certain passage, you know,
and you've never been on the open ocean before.
That is a huge extrinsic adventure.
So keep in mind that adventure shots and adventure content
isn't defined by action cameras,
but if there are certain activities
that you're interested in capturing
to highlight these adventure shots,
then I highly recommend checking out our GoPro shot list.
Actually, no, no, I highly recommend checking out
our GoPro accessories guide,
because through that guide we also showcase
how that you can use those accessories
to capture certain experiences.
So check that one out after this.
And, you know, if this video has come at the perfect time
in your planning phase or just in your life,
then I'd love it if you could punch that thumbs up button
because how good is YouTube for recommending you this video?
(upbeat music)
The fifth shot on the list is a selfie.
And I really wanna look at this from the lens
of if you are the protagonist in your travel film,
this is important to include.
And when I say that, I think about my own viewership
with this platform on YouTube
and the films that lend themselves,
or that really speak to me are oftentimes personal stories.
They're human stories where people are out there
achieving their own adventures.
And a specific storyteller that comes to mind
is Lucas Korns.
Now, if you want a masterclass
in how to incorporate selfie shots
into your said travel film,
then I highly recommend checking out a handful of his videos
because he does this incredibly well.
Technically, I think it is quite as simple
as setting up a tripod or even using a selfie stick.
People like watching people, like, humanize your story,
put yourself in the shot,
if you are the protagonist, you know?
Or if this story is about a cat in Morocco,
then find ways to personify that cat.
What notions of humanity does the cat also hold
that we can relate to?
Because at the end of the day,
I'm not sure if the cat's friends
are gonna be watching (chuckling)
your travel video about the cat.
(serene music)
Shot number seven is by far the most powerful shot
in this entire shot list, and I wanna tell you why.
Quite simply, it's a time lapse
and there's a range of different cameras
that can capture this said shot.
You can capture this in a 360, you know,
on your GoPro or action camera, on your full-frame camera.
It's pretty simple.
You set the duration, you mount the camera
and you click record.
Now, where I believe this is the most powerful shot
in this said travel shot list,
is in the fact that it allows us as solo travelers
for a notion of reflection.
And when we're traveling,
reflection is one of the most powerful themes
that you can adopt.
When I was solely traveling back in 2015,
I found myself in Cambodia
and I wanted to capture a time lapse
of the Angkor Wat sunrise,
the Angkor Wat temple at sunrise.
So, you know, the shot in itself is quite simple.
I set my GoPro up on a tripod
and I found myself at this actual pond.
If you've been to Angkor Wat,
you'll know exactly where I'm speaking of.
And I started recording that sunrise.
But what was so enriching about this shot
was how it allowed me this moment of reflection
to meet the people around me
and to just start a conversation.
I gave myself the space to converse, to share,
to talk about the experiences that I'd had in that country.
And that was powerful
because that made the whole thing present.
(slow gentle music)
This, again, comes down to the type of film
that you wanna make.
If this really is a story about the people,
then obviously, they are so important to capture.
Whether that's portraits or, you know,
whether that's auditory, you know,
whether that's certain anecdotes that you share,
that you can incorporate in your film.
You know, it could just be an audio recording.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a vision of them.
It doesn't have to be a really high frame-rate shot
of them doing something pretty at sunset
or sunrise or, you know, this.
These are things that can be included
if you get around to it.
But important to note that people, streets, again,
streets are often the lifeblood of certain cities.
I tend to travel less.
I don't like cities as much as I like landscapes,
so I find myself spending more time there
and less time in cities.
So again, like people,
and that's where my stories probably do lend themselves more
to people than to cities.
Like, if you checked out our Morocco travel film,
one of the people who we really had to incorporate
in that film was Abou, Aboubakr.
So yeah, again, think of what your story,
what you want your story to tell,
what you're trying to share with your film
and go out there and capture it.
I hope this video has helped you.
I hope this has come to you at the right place
and the right time in your personal journey
of creating travel content.
And yeah, if you have enjoyed it,
then definitely check out some of the other videos
that I've recommended.
If you are looking to create some more edits
or you've already had your trip
and you're looking to micro story tell,
maybe that's also something you could watch before you go.
Micro storytelling quite simply is just
a really great way to plan out your adventures.
Guys, thank you so much for checking out today's video.
Hope you've enjoyed it.
We'll see you in the next upload.
And thanks sharing the stoke. (speaking in foreign language)
Peace!